The Boys Are Back In Town
A brief writeup on the Oasis concert.
A weekend in northern New Jersey with some lads from Manchester
Happy… September? Yeah, it’s been a minute. Maybe I’ll do a summer recap soon.
Anyway, we spent our Labor Day weekend up in New Jersey to see one of the much-talked-about Oasis reunion shows. You’ve heard of these guys, right?
A young man in the city
First though, we took the little guy to New York City for the first time. He had a good ol’ time, I think, playing around in Industry City over in Brooklyn, and especially at one of the many playgrounds in Battery Park. If he ever decides to move to New York, I will blame this formative memory.
Anyway, “Wonderwall”
And so, Sunday night, Von and I made our way to the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ to witness the Oasis reunion. Even up to the show starting, we questioned whether the detente between Liam and Noel that led to this would last. Every show that successfully happened seemed like tempting fate.
But lo and behold, the evening went without a hitch.
I do not love stadium concerts, as a rule. At something with so much production around it, you lose the possibility of almost any spontaneity. The setlist for this entire tour was well known, and unchanged from the first date in the UK through to the two nights in New Jersey. I’m sure Pasadena’s setlist will look identical as well. And I get it, the nature of such an elaborate show doesn’t leave room for “let’s have a go at this one, boys” sort of additions, or what have you. So we knew there was no chance of hearing personal favorites like “She’s Electric” or “Round Are Way.”
Did you ever wonder what it would be like to sing this song with 67,000 fellow Oasis fans? You’re about to find out. —Noel Gallagher
That said, a sold out stadium show is good for amplifying one of the best, most primal, most satisfying parts of the live music experience: the group singalong. Where you and X number of people around you are united in this shared reverie. In these moments, the jabronis around me and I could come together, screaming the chorus to “Don’t Look Back in Anger”—as Noel pointed out—many of us for the first time. The spell was broken as soon as the final chords rang out, but in those moments, looking around, hearing and feeling the sound of so many in unison, there was the magic.
A brief aside, a lot of ink has been spilled over the years about Noel’s… shortcomings as a lyricist. Oh BOY does that get highlighted when you’re screaming along in a stadium. I found myself really thinking about the words and oh man, are most of these some prime gobbledygook. What was it about the ‘90s and being able to get away with saying utter nonsense on massive singles? What the hell is a wonderwall, anyway? He’s lucky to have Liam’s ability to bring so much attitude to the whole enterprise that you can overlook it in the moment.
This song is probably why I like gin & tonics. —Von, during “Supersonic”
There wasn’t a lot of banter, especially not from Noel. As one might expect, Liam had the most to say, and while some of it was characteristically bombastic, most of it seemed almost… subdued? Liam acknowledged the crowd and the fans, and the enormity of these American shows. In a moment of lightness, he introduced “Wonderwall” with, simply, “anyway, ‘Wonderwall.’” He dedicated “Live Forever” to “the little kiddies in Minneapolis,” a gesture which, as a parent, was emotional terrorism for me; that song already has enough of a mournful quality without the spectre of a school shooting over it!
This was most of what I could have asked for from an Oasis reunion: largely focused on the first three records and their accompanying b-sides (Standing on the Shoulders of Giants was acknowledged by “Fuckin’ In the Bushes” playing as the intro music; otherwise, “Little By Little” was the sole post-Be Here Now song in the set), played in the most gigantic manner possible.